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Chrome Web Store API keys and credentials

What every Chrome Web Store credential a founder holds does, whether it expires, and what tends to break. Each fact links to Chrome Web Store's own docs.

Last checked 2026-11-11 · developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore

At a glance

Each credential

Google account (Chrome Web Store developer login)

• Not documented

The developer account is a Google account, and its developer email cannot be changed after registration; moving to another address means a new account and a transfer of items through support. 2-Step Verification must be on before publishing or updating an item. Other people are added to a publisher as members with a role (Viewer, Item Manager, Editor or Admin) rather than by sharing the login.

Chrome Web Store docs

OAuth client ID and secret with a refresh token (Chrome Web Store API)

• Not documented
• Can be scoped

Created in the Google Cloud Console and used with a refresh token to get access tokens, which last about an hour. The token must come from the Google account that owns the items, with 2-Step Verification on. Two scopes: full access (upload, publish, rollback) and read-only. The page does not say whether the refresh token expires.

Chrome Web Store docs

Service account (Chrome Web Store API, for CI)

• Not documented
• Full access only

A Google Cloud service account added by email on the Developer Dashboard's Account page can manage the publisher's items. One service account per publisher. It can sign in by impersonation (short-lived tokens, no key file) or with a JSON key file, which the docs warn carries more risk.

Chrome Web Store docs

What usually goes wrong

• Developer email cannot be changed after registration, so a lost or abandoned mailbox blocks account changes
• Publishing or updating is refused until 2-Step Verification is on for the Google account
• A trader's legal name, address and phone number are shown publicly on the listing, so a home address used at verification becomes public
• Trader verification needs a Google Payments profile and a phone that can receive SMS; accounts that cannot create a payments profile get error OR_AMR_01
• An account can create only one extra publisher, and deleting it does not give the allowance back
• Registration is refused in countries and regions that are not on Google's eligible list

Renewals and billing

A one-time registration fee is paid when the account is created. The official pages read do not state the amount.

What Chrome Web Store's docs don't say

We couldn't confirm these from official docs, so don't rely on them either way:

• Exact registration fee amount (the official pages say only that it is one-time)
• Whether the API refresh token or a service account JSON key expires (the Chrome Web Store pages do not say)
• Whether a trader's contact email is shown on the listing, and how it is verified
• What happens to published items if a trader does not complete verification
• Whether a D-U-N-S number is asked for at verification (the trader FAQ mentions one only in passing)

Rotating or replacing a Chrome Web Store key

The steps are the same for most providers: make the new key, deploy it everywhere the old one is used, check it works, then revoke the old one. Our guides walk through it:

Sources

• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/register
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/set-up-account
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/group-publishers
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/using-api
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/service-accounts
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies/two-step-verification
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies/trader-disclosure
• developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies/trader-verification-faq

Related providers

Keep track of every Chrome Web Store key

StackHangar stores your Chrome Web Store keys in an encrypted vault, grouped by the product they belong to, warns you before they expire, and walks you through rotating them. We can't read your secrets.